Browsing the archives for the glass jars tag.

Homemade Chalkboard Paint and Cute Jars

Crafty

As with so many of the neat little ideas I’ve been trying out lately, this one came to me via Pinterest. This is the original, inspirational pin, but the link is now broken. The gist of the post was the extremely simple recipe (one sec) and the idea of using a color other than black for the paint. I went with black because I was looking for a traditional chalkboard feel, but the blog I read it on went with pink! So cute!!

The idea of painting the jars to make labels came to me from Better Homes and Gardens, but in their example, they use a vinyl chalkboard sticker.

This project was way fun because I have pretty much always wanted to mess around with chalkboard paint and I’ve never had the opportunity to. All you need to start chalkboard painting ALL THE THINGS is:

-2 tablespoons non sanding grout (you can get the white stuff to make it easier to tint the paint to other colors, or black if you’re going with black)
-1 cup paint
-a mason jar or something to mix in
-a stick of some kind to mix with
-a sponge brush
-cute jars or boxes or canvas or whatever to paint on

I didn’t stress about leveling out my tablespoons.

I was pretty precise about the paint though.

I still can’t believe all these years – that’s all there is to it. Now I’ve got a cup of black chalkboard paint in a mason jar to paint whatever I feel like pretty much whatever I want whatever my husband hadn’t deemed off limits.

I bought some cute jars to make as gifts for my husband’s dear cousin Jenn and her husband, Adam. So first, I taped off a box with painter’s tape to make sure I had a clean edge.

Then I painted it – about 5 coats. Every time I went into the kitchen I’d check on them and if they were dry, I’d lay another coat on.

The next day, I took off the painter’s tape and held my breath a little. I was nervous I’d catch a paint blob or something and wreck it but it came off perfectly!

I didn’t know this till I read the (now sadly dead) blog post, but in order for chalkboard paint to ‘work’ you have to rub chalk over the surface, and wipe it off. Then presto, it’s ready to roll.

I want to make a zillion more and then I want to paint chalkboard onto, um, everything. And really, since you only need 2 tablespoons of grout and it’s only sold in boxes much, much more than 2 tablespoons, you can make batch after batch and potentially paint a pretty large area. Fun!!

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